Alternatives 2021 Conference

Keynote Presentations

Laura Van Tosh – From Meaning to Purpose:

Basics to Inform Legislative Advocacy

Laura Van Tosh is the convener of Washington Legislative and Policy Advocates (WLPA), a nonpartisan, all-volunteer educational venture focused on health and wellbeing. WLPA engages people in policy development and advocacy at the state, county, and city levels, and is an active member of statewide coalitions focused on housing, civil rights, human services, and police accountability. Laura has held policy positions at the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors, State of Maryland, University of Maryland, and State of Oregon. Laura has worked inside three state psychiatric hospitals, including one in which she was confined. She has written extensively about peer-run programs and has directed several peer-run services. She has provided national technical assistance at SAMHSA and peer-run clearinghouses. She is a proud member of ADAPT, Disability EmpowHer Network, and the Cross Disability Action Network. Laura lives in the thriving Central District in Seattle and is active in local politics, serving as a precinct committee organizer. She is the recipient of the 1997 Isaiah Uliss Advocate Award from the International Association of Psychosocial Rehabilitation Services; the 2001 Redbook Magazine Strength & Spirit Award for “consumer voice in healthcare;" and the 2002 Brendan Nugent Leadership Award from the New York Association of Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services.

Cherene Allen-Caraco – Organize, Strategize, Mobilize: Growing a Contemporary Recovery Movement

Cherene is a national and international recovery consultant and works with professionals, systems, states, organizations, and peers to understand and facilitate recovery as well as elevate the profession of peer support to ensure that its integrity and authenticity are maintained. She says, "It’s been 33 years since I received my first of 8 mental health diagnoses. Along with that introduction into mental health systems came the proclamation that I would be too sick to go to college and would likely spend the rest of my life in and out of hospitals. I was 13 years old and I believed them. They were wrong. It almost killed me. I have spent the past 27 years learning about recovery from labels of serious and severe and persistent mental illness. Having worked in many organizations, state governments, hospitals, and managed care organizations, in various roles, I learned a lot about mental illness. Being connected to other psychiatric survivors, however, I have learned about healing, wellness and recovery. In 2016, I took all the years of personal and professional experience and started Promise Resource Network (PRN), an organization led and staffed by people who are in recovery from complex trauma, labels of mental illness, substance use challenges, homelessness, former incarceration, gang involvement, suicide attempts and domestic violence. Peer support remains the foundation of the agency, recovery and trauma-healing its blueprint, and social justice its mission.”

Sherman Gillums Jr. – Truth, Racial Justice, and History at a Crossroads

Sherman Gillums Jr. lost his father to a police shooting and was raised by a single mom. He survived childhood abuse and joined the Marines, serving 12 years until he was severely injured. He overcame physical and mental injury to become a national advocate for persons impacted by trauma. Sherman’s goal is to use his testimony to bring a message of hope and redemption in the face of trauma and tragedy. He holds a master’s degree from the University of San Diego’s School of Business Administration, and he completed his executive education at Harvard Business School. He is currently pursuing doctoral studies at the University of Dayton.

Tiara Springer-Love – Finding Our Voices by Changing the Narrative of Youth Engagement

Tiara Springer-Love, LMSW (pronouns: she/her), is an ambitious leader, mental health advocate, and community organizer who is dedicated to ensuring that the voices of youth and young adults within underserved communities are not only heard but recognized and used as a driving force for change within all child-serving systems. Driven by her own lived experience with the foster care and mental health systems, Tiara says that her goal is to advocate for access to quality care for those within marginalized and oppressed communities. Tiara takes pride in her ability to provide skill development and to create spaces where youth and young adults can be empowered to take charge of their own lives. Tiara is the Director of Youth Power at Families Together in New York State (FTNYS), and is an alumna of the Silberman School of Social Work at the City University of New York’s Hunter College, where she obtained her Master of Social Work degree.

Eddie "Vishen" Perhonitch – Prison Abolition: It's Time to Rethink It

Eddie Perhonitch was involved with the criminal justice system for 17 years. He has been incarcerated and on probation, and had what he calls a “fat file” of mental health diagnoses: He was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, depression, schizophrenia, anxiety, and PTSD. Through those years, he used drugs and alcohol in excess to escape the mental and emotional chaos he was experiencing. Since then, Eddie has become a voice that cannot be silenced. He is the founder of Culture2Culture Forensic Peer Support in Pennsylvania. He says he is also the designer of the Genesis Project, a Home of Integration for Re-citizenship; creator of the Protectus Registry; and author of Create Your Own Re-entry and of the Standardized 5-Day Forensic Peer Support Training, which includes his emerging best practice in therapeutic relationships called Intentional Transformative Processing (ITP). Eddie says he is the modern-day master of “Right Idea” science and practices. He believes that the transformative power of peer support will be the driving force behind prison abolition and the overhaul of the corrections system that will follow.

Helen “Skip” Skipper – Caught Up in the Intersectionality of Systems: Moving from Rage to Fearlessness to Change

Skip has been there, done that: “I’ve been involved in every system New York City and State have to offer. I've lived on the hamster wheel of not just recidivism through the criminal justice system, but cycling through substance abuse programs, mental health programs, and homelessness. The unaddressed core mental health issues led to substance use and a never-ending cycling through systems.” Helen Skipper — “Skip” — has been working in peer support since her final release from multiple incarcerations in 2007. She is the Manager of Peer Services at the New York City Criminal Justice Agency, where she has created a program with 14 peers working solely in the New York City criminal justice space, the largest such program in New York City. A Beyond-the Bars 2020/2021 Fellow, Skip is also a Columbia University Justice-in-Education scholar while maintaining a 3.9 GPA at St. Francis College — where she is a student representative and the first post-prison program participant to be invited to join the Honor classes. Skip is a budding researcher working on her Ph.D. She will use her lived experience to inform and reform as a “Convict Criminologist.”

Roslind Hayes – Peer-Run Respites: An Example of Effective Crisis Alternatives

Roslind D. Hayes, BS, CPS-MH, CARES, WHWC, is the Statewide Director of Peer Services and Training for the Georgia Mental Health Consumer Network, where she has worked since 2010. Roslind oversees Georgia’s Peer Support, Wellness, and Respite Centers and directs the trainings for Georgia’s CPS-Mental Health workforce.
For more information about Alternatives 2021 keynote presentations, click here.